Protected
by Moonlightish
Summary: Hadley was fierce, loyal and unhappy. She thought of herself as weak, vulnerable and unprotected. But she was the opposite, thanks to him. I can assure you that the story is better than this horrible summary. Rated M for swearing and paranoia that just won't go away/
1. Chapter 1

My life isn't the best. That was a given. Yes, there's people who could top mine anyday when it came to the horrible life category. Granted, it doesn't matter whose life is worse because all of have shit lives in a way. But if there was a contest for horrible lives, I would be on the podium for that contest.

"You scared? For the reaping today, I mean." Sebastian, my neighbor who would _never_ leave me alone, asked. I shot him a look and said, "Obviously. I've basically got a bounty on my head in the Capitol."

"Snow and anybody who works with the games hates you. Minus some of the mentors and Caesar." he corrected, "The actual Capitol people are putty in your hands."

"My Dad's hands, actually." It was my turn to correct him. My dad was a victor. He had won the 57th games, and the capitol people adored him. All throughout his games, he had had my mother as motivation. And he did not like people to forget it.

With his interview with Caesar, he went on and on about he was going to win for my pregnant mother. He had single handedly stolen the hearts of everybody. He racked in an immensely abundant amount of sponsors. He managed to go home to his pregnant soon to be wife.

Hence, the Capitol loved my family. And when I was born, my father had unintentionally given my privacy from the capitol away. All throughout my life I was trending in a way. It had it's good moments, but it was mostly filled with bad ones.

"True, but they all love you more than their own kids." He stated. I shrugged then continued to swish my feet in the water as I sat on the edge of the dock. I would miss this if I was reaped. District four's water and calmness.

I had lived in district four most of my life. I was born here and lived here. While my father wanted to explore the nation with my mother and sister, I wanted to stay where I was. They had been to every district and the capitol, right now they were in the capitol, a place where my sister wouldn't be able to be reaped.

They had done this for a couple years now, since her first reaping. They would get up and leave from wherever they were and get my sister in to safety.

I had only gone to one other district, district seven. I had loved it there and lived there for a couple peaceful years, until homesickness swallowed me home and I was forced to come home.

Looking at my watch, I saw that if we didn't leave now, we would be late. Sebastian saw what I was looking at and understood. He stood up and offered me a hand but I had already gotten up.

"See you back here after its over or see you in the justice building." I said as I walked up the dock towards my little beach shack. I was given the option to live in the victors village, but declined since I wasn't an actually victor or living with one. Those people deserve where they live, and I did not deserve to be there.

After walking in the house and to my room, I sat my bed and sighed. If I got picked this year, something would start. And that thought was scary.

Slowly walking to my closet, I grabbed a tattered and battered pair of jeans that I wore out on the boat a lot. Then I grabbed a black shirt that didn't have any significance.

That was all I was doing. Walking out of the door I saw a package on the porch of my house.

I ripped it open eager to see what was inside of it. Inside, was a necklace that screamed my name.

It was all black circle that had faint drawing of a forest with a crescent moon hovering over it. It was beautiful. I flipped it over and saw that on the other side it was silver with a picture of the ocean. The ocean side had a wave on it and a bunch of little stars.

Inscribed on the sides of the pendant that resembled a coin in a way, was the letter M for mom, D for dad and H for Harley, my little fourteen year old sister. They were tiny, but I noticed them.

Smiling, I quickly clasped the necklace around my neck and threw the garbage behind the chair on the porch in a rush.

I ran to the justice building that was a half mile away and found the line of eighteen year girls.

Once to the front of the line, they pricked my finger and the scanner read Hadley Valor. The peacekeeper muttered my name then shooed me away. That was the only time I wanted to hear my name today.

After a short but with the tension long ten minutes, the ridiculous escort made her way on stage.

"Hello! Hello! Happy Hunger Games, future district four tributes! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" the lady with midnight blue hair and just about everything else excitedly said.

"As always, ladies first!" she smiled from ear to ear and plucked a piece of paper from the bowl. I held my breath and hoped with all my heart that my last year wouldn't have me being picked. _Please._

"Francesca Lexar!" No.

I looked around and saw the girl that I had taken a liken to over the past few months wheel her wheel chair out of her group.

Franny, didn't have the best home life. The nation tried to keep abuse to a very, very small percentage, but it still happened. She had been beaten so much that she was disabled from the waist down. She also wouldn't stand a chance. The fact that she was still even given a chance to be reaped infuriated me. If I volunteered, she would be safe but still disabled. But the first thing I would do when I got back was get her the surgery in the capitol that she needed.

"I volunteer as tribute!" I yelled. All eyes turned and looked at me with rapt attention. I stepped out of my row and wheeled Francesca back where she was in her thirteen year old row. Looking at her, she had tears in her eyes. She grabbed my hand, "Thank you." It was two heartbreaking words that just encouraged me to keep going. I squeezed her hand then walked up to the stage where our escort smiled broadly at me.

"We all know your name but say it for us?" She grinned as she gripped my shoulders and waited for me. "Hadley Valor." I said with a straight face.

"Well Hadley, that was quite the nice thing you did there. But now we must move on to the boys."

She walked over to the boy bowl with her overly tall heels and plucked a piece of terrifying paper.

"Quinn O'Clic!" This just keeps getting better. Quinn had unsuccessfully for the last three years, tried to get in my pants.

He walked up on the stage and smirked at me. Our escort, whose name was Cliceal, said some things that I didn't pay attention to then told us to shake hands.

I turned and faced Quinn. We shook hands, but he gripped mine a little tighter than necessary.

Walking out of my room, that I had been in for a good five minutes, on the train I saw the districts that were so obviously the careers all sprawled on the couch. I stopped in my place and eyed them all warily. There was one girl with blonde hair that was twirling her hair. The other girl had dark brown almost black hair and was eating something. One of the boys with average sized shoulders and tall build was sprawled on the couch. The last boy was huge. He was huge. He had blonde hair that was cut short and cold calculating blue eyes. He sat with his arms crossed watching the reapings.

I had evaluated all of them already and walked toward my mentor, Finnick. He sat in the chairs a little behind where the careers were conversing with Quinn.

"And here she is! My lovely girlfriend of three years!" Quinn said with a grin that made me uneasy.

I grabbed a knife from a nearby table and launched a couple millimeters away from his ugly head. Considering the careers were a few feet away from me, it probably wasn't the brightest idea.

"I am _not_ your girlfriend. You've been trying to get in my pants for the last three years. And I reject you every time, and guess what_, hun_? My answer isn't changing.

"Okay, well when you're being brutally murdered I won't even attempt to help you." He shrugged. Finnick's eyebrows rose at that statement.

"I'm going to squeeze your ugly head to death with my bare hands, you litt-" finnick stopped me before I could finish my insult and before I could lunge at him.

"That's enough social interaction for today," he muttered as he hauled me over his shoulder and attempted to carry me to my room. He didn't make it pass the careers before I flipped us over and got away from him.

I made the quick decision to go back to where Quinn was with my hips swinging. I could feel the boy with blue eyes watching me carefully and Finnicks hesitance.

When I got next to Quinn, I squatted low next to his legs and he smirked. I reached my hand over and instead of grabbing his leg, I grabbed the chairs leg and pulled as hard as I could. That sent him toppling to the ground while I grabbed one of the drinks on a nearby table and poured it on him.

It was my turn to smirk at him. I walked away towards my room and flicked waist my caramel colored hair over my shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello! If you've managed to get to the second chapter of this story, you are one brave and enduring person. Anyway, the chapters alternate between Cato and Hadley. Sometimes they pick up right where they left off and sometimes they don't. And Katniss and Peeta aren't in this, neither is Rue. Also, reviews are great!**

Chapter two: Cato's POV

I heard and seen all about Hadley my entire life. So, when I got on the train that all the usually career districts would be sharing, I was prepared for seeing her for the first actual time.

But there was no way in hell, that I'd be prepared for her. She walked into the main room with a fierce expression on her face. She had on a black tee shirt that was too tight for her to be wearing with a room with mostly guys. What happened next proved that. She also had on a pair of jeans that were so ripped you could see all of her knee and just a little more, which was also bad to be wearing in a room full of guys.

The annoying voice from the district four boy rang out, "And here she is! My lovely girlfriend of four years!"

That had managed to somehow surprise me. If she was dating that kid, it would have been nation news. Her whole life was.

"I am not your girlfriend. You've been trying to get in my pants for the last three years. And I reject you every time, and guess what, hun? My answer isn't changing." That had surprised me even more. Pausing the district one reapings, that were pointless considering they were sitting next to me, I turned my head slightly to see a knife slashing through the air, barely missing the kids head.

Is this how she actually is? On TV and magazines and all of those things, she's portrayed as the nicest person on earth. Granted, she was sarcastic, but nice never the less.

She was not nice right now. Sarcastic? Yes. Slightly vicious? Yes. Intriguing? Hell yes.

"Okay, well when you're being brutally murdered I won't even attempt to help you." The kid had some nerve saying that. The girl could obviously do some damage. So why the hell would he go and do that? In the long run though, this might help me. One less kill if he continued to piss Hadley off.

Everybody was surprised apparently. Everybody who was sitting in or by the couches watched with rapt attention. Finnick, who had been talking to the boy earlier was surprised too. Even Brutus and Enobaria were watching her. Gloss and cashmere, the district one mentors had been watching the whole time.

I, for one, was surprised. But also intrigued to this girl. There was so obviously more to her then what meets the eye, and I wanted nothing more than to find out what it was. Because, whatever it was had pulled me in. Within the short span of no more than two minutes, I was already feeling a hot ball of anger at the kid so blatantly declaring that the girl was going to die. Maybe even die before I could find out what it was about her.

She screamed out something about squeezing his head to death while getting ready to pounce when Finnick had restrained her. She flailed around over his shoulder, moving her jean clad butt that was on display to everyone.

Before Finnick even managed to get her out of this compartment, she flipped him over. She flipped him over. The grown man that, despite her tallness, still had many inches on her was on the ground because of her.

Watching her I realized that she was astoundingly gorgeous. Her hair that wasn't straight like the district one girl's obnoxiously bright hair, was long as hell and wavy. Normally, I wouldn't look at hair. Because what the fuck is the need of that? But with Hadley, you couldn't help it. It was a brown color that was sort of red, and it was eye catching.

Her eyes, were an amber color that could pierce you. One look at those peepers, and you were done for. They were big doe eyes, but they were cold. Her whole face was like that in a way. Innocent and curious, but cold at the same time.

The overall rest of her body was complete and utter curves. Her shoulders weren't petite, but they weren't huge and bulky. They were the size that said she could be nimble and quick yet strong at the same time. Her arms said that she was strong. Looking at her hands, I saw scars on her knuckles. She must be good at hand to hand combat.

Not wanting to be too obvious, I looked at the rest of her. She had breasts that any guy would just stare at, which I sort of did. Her stomach showed that she was fit but not unhealthily skinny. She had curves that that were as attention grabbing as her breasts. Her legs were long and strong.

Snapping out of whatever daze I was in, she started moving. She walked towards the boy moving her hips in a seductive way. When she passed the couch that I was sitting in, I couldn't help but look at her ass again.

Once by the boy she squatted right next to his chair and smirked up at him, he smirked down at her. The way she was looking at her was irritating me. And the fact that the girl was in a position that was in favor of her district partner, irritated me to the point where I was just about to say something. She reached over and right as a snarky comment was going to leave from my mouth, she sent him flying.

She had grabbed the chair leg and sent him flying which amused me to no end. Then she topped it off by spilling someone's drink on him. She walked away quickly to the compartment that held her room.

"You got yourself a tribute, Finnick." Enobaria said surprised after he had come back from putting the boy in his room.

"Tell me about it, but I can handle her." He said after plopping in his chair. I turned my attention back to the reapings and got them in motion.

The district one girl's name was apparently Glimmer and the boy's was Marvel. Their reaping went the same as it did every other year.

I quietly watched as Clove's and my reaping came up. I was satisfied with how I presented myself during the reaping.

District three's was the same as every year, boring and not promising any good fights. It was always like this. You would think that they would finally get an academy or something.

When district four's came up, everybody paid attention. A girl who was not Hadley was called. She was also in a wheel chair. Then, Hadley popped out of the crowd and volunteered for the girl. The girl instantly got emotional and lost her shit. Hadley had wheeled her back to her spot in the crowd, muttered a few words and walked on to the stage.

The boy, whose name is apparently Quinn, was reaped and waltzed up to the stage and eyed Hadley up. They then shook hands and Hadley's face remained expressionless.

The rest of the reapings had gone as they did every year, nothing that spectacular about anybody, aside from the guy from eleven. He was kind of big.

Deciding that I'd rather be sleeping, then listen to all the mentors talk, I went towards the bedroom compartments. When I walked in to the compartments, the girl that surprised everybody was walking out. She inevitably walked head on into my chest and stumbled back a little bit. I caught her and helped her regain her balance.

"Sorry," she muttered. I shrugged and let go of her, she quickly moved to the other side of the hall and kept walking. Up until a door was opened and there was a, 'smack' sound. I turned around as soon as she did and saw that Quinn had smacked her ass. She looked ready to kill him, and I had no doubt that she could have. She landed a good punch straight to his nose, and would have gotten more if I had not stopped her and pulled her too the room she had walked out of.

I let go of my tight hold around her stomach, letting her stomp over to her bed, huff and give me a look that said, 'why are you still here?'

When I didn't leave her room, she said it, "Why are you still here?" I looked at her for a second, unfolded my arms and asked, "He do that a lot?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"You didn't answer my question either," I said as I took a step closer to her. She glared at me then stood up at her tall height.

"Yes, okay. And every time he had a black eye, busted lip or large bruise like you will if you don't get the hell out of my room. Wait, though. Why'd you want to know so bad?" she spoke as her eyebrows furrowed.

"If he touches Clove, I will snap his neck. Although with how many times you've tried to go at him, I think you'll beat me to it." I smirked. She shrugged, "Okay, get out now." My smirk grew and I stepped out of her room. She closed the door and I walked towards mine.

Going straight for the stack of magazines on the nightstand, I sifted through them until I saw the one with Hadley and her sister. Her sister, Harley, faintly resembled Hadley. Hadley's younger sister had black hair and blue eyes. The whole family did. It was strange when they were together in a picture, she looked as if she was adopted but everybody knew she wasn't.

Flipping through the magazine I stopped when I got to two whole pages of her and her being interviewed by Caesar Flickermen.

_"C: So tell us Hadley, how is life living alone? H: It's good, lonely at first but its fine now. _

_C: That's good, that's good. I'm going to get to the point Hadley, are you going to reveal to us that your love life was even more interesting than your father's? H:[laughing] Sorry to disappoint Caesar, but my love life is almost not existent. C: Almost? H: Well other than being madly in love… with my bed and sleeping, it's nonexistent."_ They went on and on about more unimportant stuff.

There was nothing important that would help in the games about her. But there was some things that would help with trying to figure out with why she was how she was. Sighing, I threw the magazine on the night stand. What are you hiding, Hadley?

When we got to the Capitol the next day, it was as if we were all the most prized possessions on earth.

All of the capitol people were screaming our names. I had gone for what brutus had earlier told me to do; the cocky approach.

The Glimmer girl was trying to be flirtatious, and she was succeeding. But it was extremely annoying. She kept trying to get close to me and make it seem like we were something that we're not.

She didn't seem to get that. Trying to make a statement, I walked over to Hadley who was killing the crowd with her smile that was fake. Wrapping an arm around her waist, she looked up at me with confusion all over her face. When I wouldn't let go of her, she gave up and went along with it. When the crowd noticed she didn't seem to mind, even though she did, they went crazy. Yelling hers and my name, we entered the car with them continuing to do that.

"I don't know what the hell you're at two, but leave me out of it!" she snapped as soon as we got in the car before anyone else was in and they could hear us.

"Two?" I asked, questioning her name for me. "I don't know your name." I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Cato Hadley." I said, realizing for the first time that we shared a name. "You know mine," she muttered.

"No literally, my last name is Hadley and yeah. Everybody knows who you are." She raised her eyebrows and nodded. Soon after, everybody entered the car that was supposedly called a limo.

Tonight was the tribute parade. And my district would have the warrior theme, again. Every single year.

My _stylist_ had decided to go with the gladiator look. Meaning, I would just be wearing armor and some weird ass hat thing. Clove's outfit was similar, just a girl version.

"Okay, Okay, okay! We need to go to the chariots! Show time." Our escort who had taken a different train with the other escorts exclaimed.

We walked through the building till we were at the bottom where the chariots were. Looking around I saw Hadley and her shit district partner walking towards there chariot.

Hadley looked like a damn goddess. But her outfit was a goddess costume or anything. She was wearing a black swimsuit that was in two pieces. Over it she had a white sweater thing, it looked like a net but it was made of string that was made to use clothes. It didn't look bad at all either, it made her seem like she was wearing something she would wear in district four. She also had a bunch of necklaces and bracelets. She looked tan and natural, whereas Glimmer had brightly colored makeup all over her.

"Okay! It's time! Get on the chariots!" the escort squealed. Stepping on the chariot, it started to move. After the doors had opened a deafening roar made its way to meet all of our ears.

Our chariot moved down the walkway and the crowd got louder. There were a few people in the seats that had posters of Hadley and I when we got to the capitol. I turned around and looked at Hadley who looked just as shocked. She looked at me, and something made the crowd get even louder.

Hadley had water on her. Literally. It was coming from somewhere in her costume and it sprayed behind her. Once the whole crowd realized she was on water and she did too, she turned away from me, lifted her hands up and shot water out of them. The crowd seemed shocked at what she was doing. She turned to look at me and grinned.

Then when the crowd noticed one more thing, our smiling at each other, you could hear the sponsors and the sound of parachutes falling out of the sky.

**It was strange writing in Cato's POV. Especially describing Hadley. That wasn't that fun. Anyway, Hadley's outfit was bikini with one of those coverups that are like knitted and white. Just wanted to clear that up. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three: Hadley's POV

"Every other tear and district four stylist has this idea that fish, mermaids, pirates and these magical sea sirens are an ideal outfit for the tribute," My stylist said as she walked in the room.

"I don't think that. They think that those things embody what four is all about. But it's not! Four has a natural beauty that other districts or even the capitol can't compete with." She said as she moved a stray piece of hair out of my face.

She was not your average capitol person. She had pitch black hair and eyes as green as the tree leaves in seven. Yes, she had a capitol look. But it was just tattoos that were better than any Capitol look.

I nodded at her and waited for her to continue. "You are the Capitol's favorite tribute and we haven't even begun the parade. Although, that stunt that the district two boy pulled got people that are eager to be sponsors quicker than when he staked his claim on you. And in some odd way it was beautiful seeing that the boy has got something similar to feelings for you when one of you is going to die. And you radiated beauty, you do now too. And I feel if we put a fish costume on you that has very slim relevance to what four is about, it'll diminish that beauty. So we're going to put you in what is normal for four." She said.

I was about to open my mouth and thank her for the compliments but her correct her on Cato's intention but she beat me to it. "You're welcome for the compliments. And do not even deny that the boy isn't feeling something for you. The way he looked at the two other boys when you were walking said everything. It wasn't a look of, 'She's my kill, stay away!' it was a look of fascination. Granted, the whole country has a fascination with you, but this boy's was something different. He looked like he cared about you, but at the same time it was like he wanted to figure you out. And don't even get me started about how when the district one girl tried to get a little more familiar with the idea that she can use him, he walked straight over to you with this look on his face."

I liked her. She wasn't going to sugarcoat shit. She wasn't going to tell me that everything was going to be okay even if it wasn't. She was going to be honest, unlike most capitol people.

"You're honest, and you're deep." I started, "I like you." I finished. She grinned at me and nodded, "I don't see the point in making it seem better than it is." I nodded at her thankfully for being for her seeming like the only sane person here.

"Now sorry to keep you waiting, you probably want to see your outfit," She said as she moved toward the closet. She was right, I was very eager to see what I would be wearing. She spoke so much about how it wasn't what district four normally wore, so I was being eaten alive with anticipation.

She walked out of the closet with a bikini in hand and a cover in the other. "You're prep team did a wonderful job on making you look fresh out of the salty waters of four so we needn't worry about that. And I don't think I've introduced myself have I? My name is Opal, and you are Hadley."

I nodded and gingerly took the clothing out of her hands. I quickly put it on, eager to get out of the paper dress that my prep team put on me while she turned around and went to get something.

My prep team had been relentless on the emphasis that the saying pretty hurts is true. They had waxed, washed and polished almost every inch of me. And it _hurt._

I had on the bikini and cover up that sort of looked like one I had back home when Opal came back. She took my hand It put many rings on each finger. She put on the rest of jewelry then said, "Your beauty is eye catching enough, but we want to wow the crowd with the simplicity of this. The rings you have on are linked to the bracelet and the bracelet to the necklace and the necklace to the cover up. All of those have microscopic water that we, the other stylist and I, have created. When you press the little gem on your bracelet that will send the water fling out of the back of the cover up. And a couple seconds later it will seem to be shooting out of your hand, but it really is coming from the rings and the bracelets. When the water comes out though, it's normal water." My mouth fell open from the idea.

"That's genius, Opal!" she grinned at my happiness then led me outside. When we were out of the room Finnick was standing there and he said, "Looking good as always, Stingray."

I rolled my eyes at his nickname for me and said in monotone, "You look the same as you always do, Dorsal Fin."

I had known Fin since he got back from the games. We had been friends since he had gotten back from his games. Granted, I was a lot younger, but we were still friends. My dad had mentored him. Finnick was the last tribute my dad had mentored before deciding he wanted to travel the country.

We all walked down to where the chariots were. When we got down to the chariots, I saw a cluster of stylists working on their tributes in hopes of wracking in more sponsors. I also saw Cato looking at me how Opal said he would be looking. He was looking at me like I was a piece of meat. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't unnerving.

Finnick must have sensed my distress because he discreetly squeezed my hand and whispered, "I know you're uncomfortable with but let him look." I subtly nodded and tried by best not to glare at him when his eyes fell from my face to my chest.

Mounting the chariot, Quinn walked over and got on the chariot too. His hand went to move for something that wasn't my hand, although that would have been bad too. He reached over and squeezed my butt.

I glared at him viciously and stomped as hard as I could on his foot. He let out a whimper of pain and leaned away from me.

I had to smirk at that.

When the doors opened and you could already hear the crowd chanting my name, my smirk couldn't help but transform into a smile.

When the chariot started moving and I could see people I smiled at everybody. They all smiled and threw flowers back. But when I saw a few people holding big pictures of Cato's arm wrapped securely around my waist, my eyes flew to Cato who looked just as surprised.

Deciding it was a good time to wow the crowd, I pressed the button on my bracelet. Cato even managed to look surprised in a fierce sort of way. The crowd got even louder.

When I lifted my arms up above my head and the water came out, the crowd got even louder. But when I smiled at Cato and he gave me a small smile, the crowd got ear splitting loud.

When the chariots came to a stop and President Snow started his speech, I glanced over at Cato to see he was smirking at me.

"That was perfect! The Capitol loved you and Cato!" Finnick said loudly when we walked in to our floor. The room was covered in various blues and sand colored things.

"What's going on with you and Cato," Quinn growled out. I shot Finnick a look and he looked at me grimacing.

"Nothing," I muttered to Quinn before walking to the room that had my name on the door.

Later, when I lay on my bed watching the reapings that I didn't get to see on the train, I heard Finnick walk past it and mutter a sorry that was barely audible.

I rolled my eyes at him and thought about the games. What would the arena look like this year? Would it be a forest? A desert?

I didn't know about the arena at all which bugged me. Then, I thought about Cato. He always seemed to be looking at me which was kind of weird. It was also weird how insanely attractive he was. I was definitely not going to lie to myself and everybody else and say he wasn't.

Everybody knew he was. Hence, why the district one girl always was trying to get his attention, that thought managed to set a little ball of anger running through me even though I barely know him! I smirked though when I realized how he went near me though when she had tried to make even the slightest of moves on him.

The next morning after I had finished the pancakes I was eating, Finnick pulled me aside and said, "As soon as you get in there, I want you to go straight to the weapons and show the careers what you can do. If they offer you a spot, take it. Don't worry about becoming a target, you can take care of them in the arena." I nodded at him even though I had no intention of being a career. And I didn't plan on killing anybody unless I had to.

He nodded then walked me down to the training room then said goodbye and good luck.

I walked over to where the other tributes were and waited for the woman to start talking. A minute or so later, I saw Quinn walk in with a limp. I smiled at that.

I looked around and saw that yet again, Cato was staring at me. I rolled my eyes at him and he smirked at me.

Seconds later, the lady named Atala went over the rules and sent us on our way. I didn't follow Finnick's instructions and went over to the painting station. I dipped my fingers in the paint then walked over to the weapons. I quickly moved near the dummy that I would be using and put two eyes, a nose and a mouth on the dummy with the paint.

Then, I walked over to the weapons and got a bow and a couple arrows, a spear and a trident. I picked up the bow and saw that all of the careers were watching me. Why is everyone always looking at me?

I made sure the arrow was in place then turned my head and looked at the bunch. I let the arrow fly and saw the looks of surprise on their faces when they saw that it had hit one of the eyes I had put on it.

When they all slowly walked over I launched the other two arrows into the mouth and the other eye. Then, I hefted the spear above my head and made it hit the middle of the dummy's forehead.

When Cato and the careers came over and he was about to open his mouth I sent the trident flying in to the dummy's throat.

He closed his mouth then opened his mouth again but I was already over at the knives. I picked one up twirled it around my fingers then sent it flying into where the dummy's mouth would be.

"Be a career," Cato said in that deep voice of his. I looked at him, "No thanks," picking up another knife, I sent it flying into the heart of the dummy.

He looked stunned that I had said no. "What?" he spat. I turned to look at him after I had sent another knife into the dummy's neck.

"I said no. And also, I would appreciate if you would quit staring at me all the time." I said slowly.

"I'll stare at you as much as I would like. And why not?" he said getting frustrated. I arched my eyebrow at him and said, "Because, why join a group that's going to slit your throat when you're sleeping? Why become some type of friends with people you're going to have to kill or watch be killed? Why put yourself in danger like that just for the hell of being in with the careers? Why let your self be that unprotected?"

He looked at me for a second, then said, "I'd protect you." I scoffed at his answer. "No you wouldn't. And I can take care of myself, so why even think about joining the careers?" I said motioning towards the dummy's that would be dead I f they were real.

He took a deep breath then walked up to me. He caged me up against the wall and whispered in my ear, "You're gonna regret this, little Shark."

I spun us around and quickly whispered in his ear, "I don't think I will, babe." I chuckled at his expression and walked off to the knot station.

I was at the knot station perfecting a net when they called lunch. I walked quickly over to get my food then sat down at a table that was empty. Seconds later though, Cato sat down next to me. I glanced at him then scooted down the bench. He followed though, and I glared at him.

"You're cute when you're mad." He said with a smirk. I sighed then turned to look at him right in the eyes.

"What do you want, Cato?" I asked. "For you to be a Career," I shook my head at him. "and for you to come practice sword fighting with me."

"Fine, let me eat and we'll go." I said eating my food. He grinned at me as he downed his food quickly. I finished the soup I had before he was done and turned to look at him. I stared at the side of his head and how his hair was sticking up. He kept eating as I looked at his blue eyes and my eyebrows furrowed. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye then went back to eating. I turned away from him and drank some of the water that I hadn't finished. But then I went back to looking at him.

"Why do you keep staring at me?" he asked as he finished his soup. "Why do you always stare at me?" I retaliated.

"Because you're hot." He paused while I rolled my eyes yet again. "And I can't fucking figure you out."

"No one ever will." I said while getting up and walking towards the training room. He followed me and handed me one of the foam sticks. I grabbed it from him and got in the ring then waved it around for a minute. He went to hit my side with his but I blocked it the flipped his over and went to hit his leg, but he blocked that then moved mine so it was hard to unblock it, but my dad had done this many times to me and I got out of it. I squatted down when he went for a hard slash to my abdomen. Then I got up and jumped when he went to hit my legs. As quick as I could I ran behind him and launched myself on his back which led to him falling. He landed on his stomach but I managed to roll him over and straddle his abdomen with my forearm against his throat.

"That was easy," I muttered leaning down close to him. He got his arms out from under my knees and picked me then putting me under him.

He leaned down close to my face, "I let you win, little Shark." I rolled my eyes and pushed him off of me.

He stood up and offered me a hand but I pushed myself up off against the ground and glared at him, "Sure, sure."

He grinned at me and said, "Be a career," yet again. I looked at him and shook my head slowly.

He set his lips into a line and sighed then walked away. He was being too persistent. If there was even a chance I was going to be a career he would have to learn to quit being so pushy.

Minutes later, everybody filled the training room again. He thankfully didn't sa anything to me for the rest of the day.

"How did training go?" Finnick asked as I walked in to our floor. I muttered a fine then went in to my room to sleep.

The next day at training, everything was the same aside from the fact that Cato didn't say anything or even spare a glance at me. He had apparently found an interest in Sparkles, which caused her to be even more annoying.

After we had finished training for the day we were being evaluated by the game makers. I watched the district one boy walk in with a smug smile on his face and walk out with one much like all the other careers.

When Cato walked out he had the smug smile on too. But it fell when he saw me. He walked close to me then whispered in my ear, "good luck _protecting _yourself when we have scores like that."

I smirked at him, "Oh, don't worry. I'm definitely not worried." He glared at me then walked to the hoard of arrogant killers.

When my name was called I walked in with an expressionless face. "Hadley, dear, we already know what you can do, don't even bother." One of the game makers called.

This infuriated me. How dare they think they know everything about me even though they really don't have the slightest clue about me.

I ran over to the weapons and got a bow and a few arrows, knives, a spear and a trident. Then I grabbed the stuff I needed to make a fire.

I set up the stuff to make a fire then grabbed the bow and arrows and shot out three lights. There were five lights in total that lit up the whole training room. I grabbed the spear and launched it at the fourth light. Then I took the trident and put out the fifth light making it go dark. The capitol people gasped at the darkness.

Then I started the fire that I had set up and turned in to a raging fire that lit up the whole training room.

I grabbed one of the knives I had picked up and launched it into the apple in the pig's mouth that was up in the gamemakers box.

"Do you really?" I asked them as I walked out of the training room leaving them frantic. When I was out of there all of the tributes looked at me and then the room that was in darkness.

Cato and the killers were still in the waiting room when I walked out and he raised an eyebrow at me. In response I gave him a sickly sweet smile then walked out of the room.

"Dorsal fin!" I called when I walked in to our floor. "Yes, stingray?"

"I fucked up. Oh my god I'm going to be the first one to die oh my god." I worried as I sat in a ball on the couch.

"What happened?" he asked. I told him everything. And I mean everything. I told him about Cato and being a career and how I scared the living daylight out of the game makers.

"Well that was for sure a ballsy move, Stingray. But I think it'll work. If you can make Cato care about you and be as ruthless as you were in there you can team up with him and take him out at the end of the games."

I nodded at his idea and laid down on the couch. What seemed like seconds later I was awoken from my nap and told that I would get my score soon.

I sat up on the couch and watched as the scores were given out. Sparkles managed to get an eight. Her partner got a nine. Clove, the district two girl got a nine. Cato got a ten.

The district three people what they got every year. Quinn had managed to get an eight too. He got a few mutters of congratulations then Caesar said, "And for the very, lovely and one of my personal favorites, Hadley Valor with a score of- what is this? Why, there's no score."

What?

Seneca crane walked in front of the camera and said, "Hadley's score is still undecided." I heard shouts from behind the camera of only two numbers, zero and twelve.

"One moment please," Seneca said before running behind the camera. You could hear shouting while Caesar tried to talk to Claudius. I sat there with fear running through my veins.

Seneca was back whispered something Caesar. Caesar smiled and Seneca walked away once again.

"Hadley valor, with a score of twelve."

"What did you do?" I heard a voice say. I was currently up on the roof trying to think alone, but that was obviously not going to happen.

I turned around a saw Cato walking out of the elevator. He walked over to where I was, leaning on the railing.

"Scared them shitless," was all I said to him. He nodded then leaned on the railing next to me.

"And how did you do that?" he asked again. "I shot out all the lights, started a huge fire and threw a knife at a pig."

He raised his eyebrows, "You threw a knife at one of them?" I laughed loudly and said, "No, I threw a knife at the roast, but I was tempted to throw one at them."

He nodded but asked _another_ question. "Why though?" I turned around and looked at him.

"Because they think they know me so well. They said to not even bother because they know what I can do. When in reality, they haven't got the slightest clue about me. Nobody really does."

He looked at me for a second, just staring at my face. His eyes moving to each part of it. Then he moved closer to me and leaned in. I felt his lips on mine and I was surprised. We kissed for a couple more seconds then he pulled away.

I looked at him in confusion then I leaned in and kissed him. We sat there just kissing for what felt like hours but it was really seconds.

I leaned away this time and asked him, "You still want me to be a career?" he smiled and nodded.

I smirked, "That's too bad, babe." I said using the nickname I had used yesterday. I went to walk away and go back down to my floor but he grabbed me by my hips and pushed me up against the wall and kissed me hard.

I pushed him off and went to the elevator.

Finnick sat on the couch when I walked in. "I followed your plan." He raised his eyebrow at me. Then I told what had just happened on the roof and he gave me a smile, ruffled my hair and said to me, "You little heartbreaker." 

**This one was definitely fun to write, and long. But it was worth it. Anyway it might seem like Hadley is opening up to Cato but she's not don't worry.**

**Darkhuntress621: I'm glad you like it! I hope I got this up fastest enough!**

**Guest: I'm like 99.9% percent sure you're ^ but if you're not, thank you! And yeah, helpless characters are okay once in a while but they get annoying in large doses.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Cato's POV

I was shocked when Hadley got a twelve, but at the same time, I had expected a high score for her. Just maybe not the highest score you could get.

"Where are you going? We have to talk about your strategy for the interview tomorrow." Brutus called as Enobaria sighed at me.

"Out on to the roof to think. Do not follow me." I told them as I shut the door. Walking over to the elevators, all I could think about was why Hadley should be a career. The pack would be so much better with her.

When the doors opened on the roof I saw the bright almost red brown hair. "What did you do?" I asked her knowing she would know what I was talking about.

"Scared them shitless,"

"And how did you do that?" I asked again. "I shot out all the lights, started a huge fire and threw a knife at a pig." She said to me. My eyebrows rose at the fact that she had threw a knife at one of them.

"You threw a knife at one of them?" she laughed at the question then said, "No, I threw a knife at the roast, but I was tempted to throw one at them."

"Why though?" I asked yet again. She then went in to how they think they know everything about her when they haven't got the slightest clue about her. I nodded as she spoke and watched the way she spoke.

Acting on a whim, I leaned in and kissed her. You could practically feel her surprise but she kept kissing me anyways.

When I leaned away and waited for her to freak out on me I felt her lean in to me this time and kiss me, to which I eagerly responded.

"You still want me to be a career?" she asked and I smiled hoping she had changed her mind. "That's too bad babe."

She left me there stunned for a second before I realized she had walked away from me. I caught up with her right before she was about to get in the elevator and kissed her while she was up against the wall.

She pushed me off of her after a little while and walked in to the elevator while I stood there, smirking at her.

…-…

"What're your tactics for tonight?" Brutus asks as Enobaria and clove watch as I move the piece of oddly colored fruit arounf my plate.

"Vicious, ruthless. Like I already am." I say as I look up at him. Clove snorts, "Like you are with that water warrior?"

I glare at her, "I already told you. I'm going to get inside her head and make her seem like I care and then kill her while she's vulnerable."

That was not actually my plan. I was too intrigued by her to kill her off. It was horrible too, knowing that I would have to at some point, if I planned on going home which I most definitely did. Plus, if I killed her, I wouldn't get any sponsors, considering the Capitol loves her.

Clove rolled her eyes at me then went to wherever her stylist was. After I had finished talking to Brutus and Enobaria, I went to where my stylist was also.

"Cato!" My stylist, Relle, said as I walked into the room. I nodded at her and sat down on the counter like I had down on the first night here.

"I've been meaning to ask you," she started as she walked out of the closet with a black suit in hand, "Are you planning on screwing the water warrior once you get in the games?"

I shrugged in response and quickly changed in to the suit I had been forced to wear. She continued to rattle on about Hadley while I continued to only half listen.

"Alright, it's time!" she said excitedly as we walked out of the room and towards the place where Caesar would be interviewing us,

Standing in line, I saw the Glimmer go on to the stage in her translucent dress and Hadley come in to the room with a white one on. _Holy Fuck_.

The dress came down to a little above her knees, was a long sleeve with the sleeves the lace pattern thing that very few capitol people wear. The dress was tight and made her curves obvious and made her already big breasts look even bigger.

She walked in with Finnick trailing behind her and quietly saying things to her in which she nodded in response.

Marvel had just come off of the stage which meant that I would be going up soon. Clove went on to the stage and portrayed the vicious person she was. Caesar seemed to like her. When her time was up, I walked out in the stage with a cold smirk on my face.

"And here we have the great, Cato Hadley!" Caesar called as I sat down in the chair. I kept the look on my face then looked out at the crowd.

"So, Cato, tell me, are you ready for the games?" he asked. I nodded, "I'm vicious and ready to go."

Caesar grinned, "That you are. You are supposedly the head of the career pack this year, is this true?"

"It is," The crowd all let out ta cry of what seemed to be like happiness then let Caesar continue.

"How does that feel? Knowing that you're district is going to be watching you lead the careers?"

"It makes me feel proud that my district will be brought honor because of me." I told him. He nodded and smiled, "they'll also be proud. But what we all really want to know is how you feel about a certain girl here if there is any. Any comments on that?"

I grinned, "Sorry Caesar, no girl here. Or at home for that matter either." The crowd all let out another cry but this one seemed to be of anger.

"Not even Miss Hadley Valor?" he asked with a smile. I looked him dead in the eye even though it was kind of hard, and said, "Not even Hadley."

The crowd roared with disbelief, in which Caesar calmed them down. When they were finally quiet, he asked, "Then what in the world was that when you both arrived at the capitol? You seemed to like her very much,"

I shrugged, realizing this wasn't what I had wanted to happen. "Yes, she's hot. But this is the games that we'll all be in a little more than twelve hours. Nothing is going to happen other than Hadley dying along with twenty two other tributes and me going home to my proud district."

Caesar nodded and mumbled the word understandable a few times. We talked for a minute more and then it was the end of my turn. When I walked behind the curtain and in to the place where every other tribute was, I saw Hadley coming over towards me. I held a hand up, "Listen, I kn-"

I had never been able to finish that sentence do to the fact that she had fallen on me. We had landed with me on my back and Hadley on top of me. Her mouth was right next to my ear and she whispered, "Don't take anything the boy from three offers, he plans on slitting your throat while you sleep."

Soon after that she stood up, while I stood up too and I nodded at her. We had looked at each other before she broke the silence, "So, you think I'm hot, huh?"

I rolled my eyes at her, "As if anybody doesn't." she grinned then hopped over to where she was next in line for an interview.

"And now, we have the ever so lovely, Hadley from district four that we all voted to have a couple more minutes with."

She walked on stage with a smile on her face, but just like when we arrived in the Capitol, it was completely and utterly fake.

I could tell she would much rather be doing something else. "Hadley, my dear we've all missed you so much!" Caesar spoke, for the audience. They all roared in approval.

"I've missed all of you too." She said while sweeping her eyes over the audience. "Your all so extravagant and unique, it's odd not seeing the way you all portray those qualities, for a long time."

I had to try to stop a laugh form from her sucking up to them so much. She definitely knew how to manipulate them though. Some of the capitol had, even though they were sitting down, passed out.

She chuckled at all of their smiling and tears stained faces. "We all miss not having you here for a long time too." She smiled at Caesar and his comment.

"But tell us, what have you been doing when you're not with us?" he asked her. "While I'm in four I'm usually fishing or practicing with a various amount of weapons. But, so far in my stay in the Capitol, I have been training, racking up twelve's, sleeping and shooting water out of my hands." She laughed as the capitol laughed aloud with her.

"Other than all of those things, Hadley, what is your favorite thing about the Capitol?" she thought for a second, "So far, My stylist, the view and my bed. That thing is so soft, you wouldn't believe it."

The audience laughed again. She was really good at this. "Don't forget, I live in the Capitol. I do know how soft the beds are. And tell us, why do you like your stylist so much?" Caesar asked.

"Opal just seems to understand me a lot. And she is also a genius when it comes to what clothes I should wear."

He nodded, "That really was something, that water." She nodded at him and said, "I actually have something like that today. Want to see it?"

He nodded along with what was almost the whole capitol as she stood up. She raised her arms up and out shot the water from her hands. Then her hair started to look like it would like if she had just jumped out of the salty ocean.

But she didn't stop there.

She spun around twice and she changed. She had caught on fire but the fire started to die down. Her dress that was white turned black but still had the same pattern. And her hair that was once damp also caught on fire, but the fire went down and when it did, it left her hair in curls or whatever.

She had gone from something so light to dark in a matter of seconds. When she sat down in her chair, it had finally sunken in to to the audience at what she had just done. They all stood up, laughing and cheering for her.

"Hadley, that was amazing. You had gone from light to dark so quickly. Wow, that was just, wow." Caesar then started clapping. Hadley smiled and waved her hand at him.

"With something like that, there has got to be _some_ boy." He said passionately. She laughed, "I wish, Caesar. I wish."

If he brings me up again I'm going to be pissed. But the fact that there wasn't anybody that even slightly interested Hadley made me sort of relieved.

"Not even _Cato_?" Caesar pried. Son of a bitch. Hadley pursed her lips, "Not even Cato," the fact that she could lie that smoothly startled me. Every day, I learn something else about her that doesn't settle well.

How often did she lie to the Capitol? If she lied too much, the Capitol would take it as a threat and she'd be in danger. Which is good! I need to stop thinking about her like this. I'm going to have to kill her. I can't let her mysteriousness stop me from doing that. She didn't even care about me in the slightest way.

The crowd all let out the loudest roar at how they were disappointed. "I do not believe this! There has to be something going on between you two! What was that when you first arrived then? And what was that at the parade? Hm?" she chuckled at Caesar's outburst.

"Believe it, Caesar. When we got to the capitol, he was just doing it to mess with me." She paused, "And at the parade I was proving to him that I won a bet we had made."

"And what was the bet about?" he asked. "Who would have the better outfit for the parade." She supplied. "I think we all know who won that one. What a shame though, about you and Cato."

She shrugged, "If we weren't going in to the games, I can promise that something would happen, but we're not. We're going in to the games and only one of us will make it out. Maybe neither of us will even make it out." She finished saying as her buzzer rang. The crowd roared with disapproval.

When they have quieted down, Caesar lifted her arm up and she said, "The only people I am winning for are my sister, Dad and Mom. Not any boy."

Then she walked behind the curtain, going straight for Finnick. He started to whisper stuff to her as soon as she walked up to him with wide frightened eyes.

The district four boy went on to the stage, and spoke to Caesar about four. It seemed like an easy going conversation, up until he brought up who was going to be his first kill.

"The first person I kill will be that girl, Hadley. She's a bitch that everybody loves and I hate. She's going to be the first one dead." The crowd that was just full of emotions today all gasped at what he had just said.

I turned to look at Hadley and saw that she was standing there with Finnick trying to calm her down. She looked around with her wide eyes and looked at me.

I started to walk over to her, but she turned around and bolted out of the room like she was on fire.

I followed her until she rushed into the elevator and the doors closed behind her. I went up to the door and hit my hands up against it. _Damnit! _

I hit the button and hard and waited for the elevator to come back. I jammed my finger in to the district four button and waited as I got up there.

Throwing open the doors, I heard somebody crying down the hall. Rushing over to where the sound was coming, I saw Hadley sitting there, clutching her blanket on her bed with tears all over her face.

I walked over to her and sat on her bed right next to her. "Make yourself right at home." She managed to sarcastically spit out. I grabbed a pillow and put it under my head, "Think I will,"

She stared at me for a second, "Why?"

"Because, I can." I replied. "No. Why are you not threatening to kill me?" it was my turn to stare at her.

"You're weird, that's why." I said as a frustrated look made its way on to her face. She looked at me for a second in rage. Then, she was on top of me smothering me with a pillow.

"Why are you laughing, you devious dick?" she yelled. I quit laughing then pushed her off of me. She was strong; there was no doubt about that. But I was stronger.

When she was off of me, I rolled on top of her. "Because, I can. The capitol loves you yet you hate them, and that's strange. I'd like to figure out why, but seeing as that's not possible, I've been trying to do that before the games."

"It's going to take more than a couple days to do that, buddy." She grit out, as she tried to get me off of her. I grinned at her attempts, "Little shark, you're strong, strong enough to be a career, but you're not stronger than me."

She glared at me. And then I realized, she wasn't going to be a career. And if she wasn't, she'd be dead within a couple days. She had also said it would take more than a few days to figure her out, and if that's how long it was going to take for her to be figured out then I would.

"Don't go in to the bloodbath. I'll get you the shit you need then, run." I told her as she stared up at me with wide eyes.

"What? Why?" she asked. "I intend on finding out as much as I can about you, little shark."

"Is the big bad career forming an alliance with little old me?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"Sort of. I'm staying with the other careers, but once they're all gone, I'll come find you." I decided.

"And what if you can't find me?"

"I will."

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Sorry this took longer to upload. Also, this was a shorter one but the last update was really long. Review, please!


	5. Chapter 5

I _**highly**_ suggest listening to, "Hunger of the pine" by Alt-J when the games start.

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Chapter five: Hadley's POV

I was terrified, there was no doubt about that. Careers don't just go up to you and make secret alliances. Districts partners, no matter how perverted, don't just go on national television and state that they hate you and that they are going to kill you on the first chance that they get.

Careers don't just fall asleep in your bed while you basically have a panic attack.

"Cato! Cato! Wake the hell up and get out of my bed!" I yelled as quietly as I could so I wouldn't alert anybody that he was here. He grumbled in his sleep and rolled over.

Getting tired of his shit, I stood up from off of the floor and sat on my bed next to him. "Cato," I said as I hit his chest. He stirred a little then rolled over again. "Fuck this."

I threw my leg to the other side of him and grabbed the collar of his shirt that had been underneath his suit. I gripped on to them as hard as I could and shook him awake.

His eyes shot open and he went to do something, _but this time_, I managed to pin him the right way so he couldn't get up unless I did.

"Why the fuck, are you always on top of me?" he asked groggily. I sat there for a second speechless.

"We've never even done something like that, you sicko!" I screeched. He rolled his eyes at me then said, "Not like that, stupid."

He smirked the added, "But we can if you want to though," it was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Get over yourself, Hadley." I told him. We looked at each for a second when I realized it. "Damn it!"

He sat there smirking up at me while I moved his arms from underneath my knees. Seizing the opportunity, he shoved me beside while I landed on the bed with a thud.

"You're annoying," I muttered. He rolled over so that he was holding himself up but still hovering over me.

"Am I really?" he asked as he leaned down towards me. I nodded but I stopped when I felt his lips against mine. It was quick, but he had kissed me nevertheless.

"Why did you do that?" I asked him as I sat up a little bit. "Because I can," he shortly supplied before going to do it again.

"Cato, you are literally going to kill me. So I'd prefer if you didn't lead me on." I snapped at him, pushing him off my bed.

"Leading you on? That would require you having something called, I don't know, feelings for me." I glared at him until he was grabbed by the shoulder and pushed in to a wall.

"Why are you in here?" Finnick viciously asked. "Dorsal fin, calm down. We formed an alliance." I reprimanded.

"You're finally joining the careers?" he hopefully asked. "No, it's secret." Cato said. Finnick glared at him the pushed him further in to the wall. I rolled my eyes at Finnick then got up and pushed him off of Cato.

"He might keep me alive, Lay off Fin." I snapped at him. "He might also be a career that'll kill you the first chance he gets and he's setting everything up!" he snapped right back.

"Just like all the other careers yet you still wanted me to be with them!" I yelled. Finnick stood there for a second. "Exactly! I'm so fucking tired of people trying to make decisions for me."

When I had finished screaming, the escort, who I hadn't even bothered talking to very much, got me and Finnick to leave each other alone.

When walking out of our floor to walk Cato back to his floor and talk a little more, I had made the stupid decision to punch something. Throwing my fist as hard as I could, I slammed it through the wall and put a decent sized hole in it.

Cato grabbed my fist, that was bleeding, and said, "Try not to kill yourself before the games even start."

I glared at him then nodded. "Tomorrow," he started, "Run away from the cornucopia, but just far enough so that you won't be spotted. When everything dies down and the other careers and I go hunting I'll lag behind a little bit so you can come and find me."

I nodded at his plan, and then he said, "What weapons do you want?" I thought about it for a second then said, "Knives, and a trident if you can get one." He nodded then said, "I'll try and get as much supplies as I can." I nodded again.

"There's one more thing, that I want to do," he stated, right before he kissed me again. We kissed for what seemed like forever. Him, gripping my hips and pinning me to the wall and me with my arms his neck.

"Cato! Quit kissing the water warrior, Damn it!" somebody yelled when the doors opened. Cato turned to look but he didn't let go of me.

The girl from his district continued to glare at him while he glared at her. "No, I can do what I want. Go away, Clove." He said before turning back to me.

"What? No. Quit trying to kiss me, stupid. She's right." I told Cato as I moved away from him. He glared at Clove then went to go near me, "No, go. Shoo! Get out of the elevator." I said pushing him a little bit trying to stifle a laugh.

He waved me off and leaned in then whispered, "Remember the plan,"

"Couldn't forget," I whispered to him. He nodded at me then stepped out of the elevator. He gave me one last parting look before the doors finally closed. There was a look in his eyes that said it wouldn't be the last time we saw each other outside of the arena. I don't know why, since it was impossible, but I gave him a look that promised that.

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"Finnick! Finnick!" I called as I was back in the floor that was ours. He stood up from the couch and looked at me.

I went it to my room and he silently followed me. When we got in my room, I threw my arms around him and cried in to his shoulder about how I was sorry for everything and about how I would miss him.

"Shh. It's alright, stingray. You're going to come out of that arena. Everybody's betting on you. And guess what they call you? The water warrior that's on fire. It doesn't really make any sense but it does. And that's what they call you! You'll be out of that arena before you know it." He soothed.

I nodded in to his shoulder. "I know you're not happy about the alliance but I think it'll work. He's going to stay with the careers and every now and then I'll drop in while he's not near the other careers and he'll give me some supplies." I mumbled.

Fin looked at me and nodded, "That's not too bad of a plan. Just be careful okay." I nodded at him and went to move towards my bed to finally get some much need sleep. But Finnick stopped me.

"Hey, stingray/ little sis, we love you. All of us; the capitol, your parents, Harley, me and tons of other people. And when you get back, we'll help you through everything." He said to me as I nodded at him with a sad smile.

He kissed my forehead then walked out of my room. Walking in the bathroom to see how disastrous I looked, I saw the necklace I had received right before the reaping on the counter.

I grabbed it and clasped it around my neck. Then, looking in the mirror, I saw that not only were my eyes red like my face, I had a decent sized hickey on my neck. That's wonderful.

I grumbled something incoherent before going to my bed and sitting down. I grabbed the remote and clicked the button that changed the view of the room. Clicking it until it was on the ocean view, I thought about everything in my life. But quicker than I had hoped, I was swallowed in to unconsciousness.

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"Eat, you need to stay fed for at least the first day." Finnick told me. "I can't," I muttered.

He sighed then took a seat next to me. "Eat or I will hold you down and shove food down your throat." I shot him an expressionless look then ate my food. Opal walked in through the door and said, "It's time, Hadley."

I stood up and gave her a nod. Finnick stood up and wrapped his arms around me. "C'mon, water warrior that's on fire. You've got this." He squeezed me as I nodded in to his chest. "You are going to make it out of that arena."

I looked up at him, "Tell my family I love them." He nodded then kissed me on my head. I squeezed his hand then walked to Opal's side; she offered me a small smile then led me down to where the hovercraft was.

She helped me in the hovercraft then muttered something about seeing me right before the games start. I nodded numbly at her then boarded the hovercraft. Sitting down where the peacekeeper instructed, I quickly scanned the hovercraft. The only threats were the eleven boy, the boy and girl from one, but sparkles couldn't do much damage. And then there was Cato. He was sitting directly across from where I was supposed to be sitting.

He sat in his seat and looked up at me when I walked past. Sitting in my chair, a peacekeeper came and grabbed my arm. When she grabbed it, my instincts kicked in and I ended punching her as hard as I could in the face.

She stumbled back with blood running down her face. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I barked. Now, there were two other peacekeepers on each side of me.

"It's your tracking device." She managed to say as two peacekeepers held on to me as she grabbed my arm again. There was a prick of pain when the tracker went in but I didn't indicate anything. When the lady walked away, the other two peacekeepers stayed near me. I glanced around and saw Cato trying not to smile at me.

He saw me looking at him though and he couldn't hide his smile. He grinned at me then struggled not to laugh as he mocked me by throwing his fist. I rolled my eyes at him then stretched my legs out and sat back in the chair.

We were in the hovercraft for a while before landing. We all got out of the hovercraft and were led to our own rooms. I sat on the counter while waiting. Not too long after, Opal walked in. she didn't say anything, but nothing needed to be said. I could tell that she was scared for me too.

She grabbed the jacket and helped me put it on. "15 seconds," a voice called. Opal looked at me, then said, "Water warrior that's on fire, you better come back."

I looked at her then nodded. "5 seconds." I walked in to the tube and tried as hard as I could to soothe my raging nerves. The tube went up and I went along with it. Once outside I saw all of the tributes gathered in a half circle around the cornucopia.

Cato was a few tributes away from me, but he still glanced over at me and almost unnoticeably nodded then jerked his head to the forest. I did the same to him then he looked back at the cornucopia.

The clock counted down as my nerves raged.

59… 58… 57… 56… 55…

I've got the people back in four to win for.

54… 53… 52… 51… 50… 49…

I've got the water back in four to win for.

48… 47… 46…45…46…45... 44…

I've got the woods in seven to win for.

31... 30... 29… 28… 27… 26..

I've got to win for Finnick and my limited amount of friends to win for.

20… 19… 18… 17…

I've got my family to win for.

10…9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4…

I've got to win for myself.

3… 2… 1…

The gong sounded and I took off running in to the woods. I slowed only to grab a back pack from the pile that had a few. From the corner of my eye, I saw knife hurtling towards me. I raised the back pack up and let the knife embed itself in to the bag.

Then I saw another knife come and I repeated the action. But what I didn't see was the knife that came from the other side that was aimed for my leg. The knife stabbed me in the calf and I let out a scream.

Ignoring the killer pain as much as I could, I ran ahead toward the forest. I managed to steer clear of everybody and climb into a tree that was a little too close to the cornucopia. I scaled the tree and successfully climbed to the top of the tree. I sat on one of the thicker branches and pulled my back pack around, trying as best as I could to ignore the throbbing in my leg.

Opening the bag, I saw a canteen, dried jerky, dried fruit, gauze, a little thing of iodine and some rope. I pulled the two knives out of the bag and put them into my belt.

Then, reluctantly, I ripped the knife out of my leg and poured some of the iodine on the cut. Thankfully, whoever had thrown the knife hadn't thrown too far and it didn't go far in to my leg. I wrapped it up in a little bit of the gauze. I leaned back in the tree and tried not to let out a sob.

A cannon boomed, startling me. I counted the booms and there had been twelve. Already half of us are dead. Eleven more and I'm home.

I continued to sit for what I could only guess was a few more hours before I saw any other tributes. The career pack was walking out in the woods. The sun was setting so I hoped that everybody for the exception of Cato wouldn't see me.

"Where is that bitch?" I heard and saw glimmer say as I peeked through the leaves of the tree and tried to be as quiet as I could. Clove Shrugged, " Hadley? We gotta kill her. I want her as my kill!" she said. Marvel jumped in to the argument with glimmer and Clove about who was going to be the one to kill me. Cato all glanced at them before tightening his grip on his sword.

"She's my kill, that's it." He grunted out. Everybody went in to protest about it before he all silenced them and pointed in the direction that had twigs snapping. I turned my head and saw a girl running away from the careers.

With the exception of Cato, again, they took off running. Clove glanced behind her to see Cato standing still. "Come on!" she called.

"I've gotta pee. I'll catch up." He called while clove cringed.

Once, they were all out of sight, Cato frantically looked around. "Little shark, Hadley, little shark. Where are you?" he said. I realized he had the supplies I needed and I moved down from my spot in the tree. When I stepped on a branch wrong, a burst of pain ripped through me because of my leg and I let out a quiet cry of pain. Cato heard it and saw me. He moved closer to my tree and I quickly pulled one of the knives out of my belt in caution.

Once on the ground Cato enveloped me in his arms as I stood there. "Am I that important?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. He let go of me and said, "Yes! There all so stupid. Clove can throw a knife but she knows jack shit about what to do in the wilderness."

I chuckled then put my wait on my uninjured leg when it started to hurt. I cringed when a shot of pain went shooting through me. Cato noticed and asked, "What happened?"

"Stabbed in the leg," I said to him as I grabbed a little bit of jerky from my pocket. He glanced my leg and then at the food in my hand. He then pulled the bag off of his back and opened to grab another, little bit smaller bag.

"Here, I tried to get more, but Glimmer saw me and started to question it. There's a couple knives, a lot of food, a two filled water bottles, lots of gauze and medical stuff, a thing of matches, a sleeping bag and a pair of those night glasses things." My eyes widened at how much he had gotten.

"Thank you, for all of this." He nodded at me then pulled something out of his bag. "Almost forgot, I got this. It shrinks and like you can fit it in your bag or something." He said holding a mini trident while scratching the back of his neck. I took it from his hands and put it in to its full size. Then I looked at him while he fidgeted. He's acting strange.

"What's wrong with you? You've been really fidgety and nervous." I said. He looked at me. "I'm paranoid something's is going to happen to you and I won't be able to save you."

I gasped, "Does the big bad career care about little old me?" He rolled his eyes then caged me up against the tree.

"If that's what you'd like to call it then, yes. I do care about you. But don't turn it in to some romantic shit. We are going to have to kill each other. Plus, if I have you as an ally towards the end, it's almost guaranteed that I'll be winning." He said as he gripped my chin.

I looked up at him and said, "Meet back here in three days at sunset?" He nodded then I leaned in and kissed him. He responded eagerly and pushed me up against the tree. He went to kiss from my mouth to my neck but I pushed him a little bit to get him off of me.

"Okay," I muttered. He nodded and muttered the words back. "Three days," I said. "Don't forget,"

"I won't." he said as I started to walk away from him. "Hey," he called once I had gotten a little further, "Be careful, alright?"

I nodded at him then got to a steady pace of jogging seeing as I couldn't run. I kept going until I found the lake. I had been moving for at least a couple of hours.

I had successfully avoided all of the other tributes, but I know this victory wouldn't last. Sooner or later, the game makers would be fed up and try to kill me. So, I would have to cherish the time I had left alone.

When I reached the lake I couldn't help but shrug off all of my clothes and my bag hide them then dive in to the water. i could tell that there was no mutations since the water was clear and I could see through it. There was no poison either, I had caught a squirrel earlier and zipped him up in one of the bags I had. I had brought him along for this purpose too. Before diving in, I grabbed the bag that contained the squirrel and sent him in to the lake.  
>He jumped right out of the water and hopped away fine.<p>

I dove into the lake and swam around for a second. There was a very small waterfall that had me wondering what was behind it. I swam over to where it was and pushed my hands behind it , hoping that there was nothing that could potentially kill me behind it.

Once my hands went through unharmed, I poked my head through the waterfall to see that there wasn't anything wrong with it.

As a matter of fact it was the opposite of bad. It was fantastic.

The inside of the cave with loaded with what looked like supplies. I cautiously scooted towards the boxes and opened one of them with one of my knives in hand.

Inside of the box, was everything that I needed to survive. Plus, there were at least 6 of the boxes. I found a mini cornucopia. And I was beyond elated. But it didn't last for too long. I looked deeper into the cave and saw that there was another way in or out. And coming in, was Quinn

"Look what we have here? Is it, the one and only, Hadley Valor?" he laughed while taking out a spear.

I thought nothing could get worse, that I would most likely be dead with in the first day. But what I saw next proved me otherwise.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Hiya. So hey hey hey hey, I want to establish a day to officially update because I'm kind of all over the place. **

**Also, I really do love reviews. They help me with my writing and motivate me to make it even better. **

**Lastly, listening to hunger of the pines by alt-j when the games start, is amazing. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi hi hi. So, since our lovely Katniss and Peeta are not in this story, the whole thing is different. No tracker jackers, fires, getting your head beat in with a rock, or killing the sweetest little girl and then getting an arrow in your chest. **

** But, seeing as I love Katniss and Peeta, they will be in a sequel if I make one and if I keep getting reviews.**

**XXXXXX**

Chapter six: Cato's POV

"What happened to that four boy?" Clove asked as she flicked one of her knives by the fire. "Maybe the bitch took care of him." Marvel voiced.

"Nah, he wasn't up when the showed who's dead. Maybe the bitch and her district partner are killing each other. I hope she kills him so she'll be my kill. God, I hate that bitch." Glimmer said.

"She's my kill." I said as I stuck my sword into the fire. "But-"they all protested, "No. She's my kill."

I didn't want to kill Little shark. If she partnered up with me when every other career was dead, my chance at being victor would be boosted a lot. And it was already really high. Even if I did want to kill her, it'd be unimaginably hard.

She was extremely skilled. So skilled she could probably lead the pack better than I could, but I wasn't ever going to say that aloud.

"Is she smart? Like survival and tactic wise?" clove asked me. I was the only one who really knew the slightest thing about her. But that was also the root of my problem. I knew so little about her and I wanted to know more.

"Hell yes. She's all three of you combined and then some super smart game maker mixed all together." I got out.

"She'd going to be a bitch to kill. But, it'll be worth it." I said partially lying. "How do you know so much about this bitch?" Glimmer asked.

I shrugged, getting tired of her nickname for the girl that was ten times smarter and more interesting than her. "That's not an answer." She squeakily said.

I looked up at her and made my sword a little more prominent. "I don't know. Maybe while you were flirting with your district partner that you'll end up killing, I was finding out stuff that actually matters." I spat.

The annoying girl scoffed then sat at the opposite side of the fire near Clove. Clove didn't even bother making it seemed like she wanted to be near her.

Later, everybody was sleeping and I was on watch. I was tempted to just kill of the one girl. She would just end up being trouble that we didn't need. But, that would start something with Marvel and we needed to be allies for as long as possible.

Or, I could kill district one off right now then drag clove with me over to wherever Hadley is.

The latter seemed more appealing but it would also bring unneeded fights that would do more damage than help.

"Cato?" I heard clove whisper. I grunted in response and she continued, "You're working with four, aren't you? I don't blame you either. It's smarter than being with these too shitheads."

I stared at her for a second then nodded. "I don't know if your girlfriend would agree to form an alliance with me, but I think she would for you." She said while rolling her eyes.

"We already have an alliance." I said sticking my sword in the fire again. "Of course you do. If we killed off these shit brains we could go look for her now." She said quietly.

"Are you planning on killing her?" I asked her while glancing at the two idiots beside us. "I was. But she's a good person to have alliance with. And to use until one of us has to kill her off."

I nodded, even though I had no intentions, whatsoever, on killing her. "She isn't going to be easy to find. And if we're going to go we need to-"I was interrupted by marvel mumbling for us to shut up.

After a couple seconds the dipshit decided to wake up and ruin our planning time. "What were you guys talking about?" he asked as Glimmer woke up.

"Where the bitch is." I said. God, I hated calling her that. "Any ideas? I want her dead as soon as possible." Glimmer voiced. "She's not by water," _She probably is_. "She knows that's the first place everyone will look." _She's probably hidden_. "She, unfortunately, isn't that stupid."

"We should go look for her now. She's probably sleeping somewhere." Marvel said. I glanced at clove and shrugged while she nodded.

Marvel grinned sadistically, then growled, "Let's go kill this bitch."

We all packed up our stuff quickly and I put out the fire. "It's somewhere around three in the morning." I muttered, looking up at the moon. They all nodded then waited for me to lead the way. I pulled out my sword and kept it at my side while walking.

"There are footsteps," I said while following the female sized footprints that were barely noticeable due to the darkness. If they were actually hers, and we found her, I would kill off district one and ask her to let Clove in the Alliance.

"Sweet! They look like the bitch's footprints too!" Glimmer squealed. Why the fuck is she so annoying?

"I found somebody!" Clove called as she raced off to the person she had found. We all followed her towards the lake.

There was a fire that lit up the whole lake and not one, but two people at the lake. One of them was standing upright and the other one had rope tied around there ankles and was hanging upside down. The person that was tied up was getting dunked in the water repeatedly.

The person that was standing upright was pulling the rope up and down and torturing the one that was upside down. The person upside down was Hadley.

"Quinn! Stop!" Hadley yelled_. That son of a bitch._

When we had all run with in twenty yards of the district four tributes, I took my sword and pointed it at Marvel's throat. I ripped the spear out of his hands as he fell backwards in fear and hurled it at the district four boy's body. It hit him right in the thigh. If it hadn't of been for how dark it is, he'd be dead.

He quickly limped away in to the darkness and I raced towards Hadley. Clove, Glimmer and Marvel went to follow me but they were all stopped as a hoard of mutations came at them.

The mutations looked like some type of really small dog. They were at least eight of them and they all had razor sharp teeth.

I ignored the mutations that were ignoring me and I found the tree that had the rope that held Hadley. She was yelling something incoherent and thrashing wildly.

"Hadley! Calm down!" I yelled up at her as I lowered her in to the water slowly. She calmed a little bit as she sat in the water. Then I pulled the rope over to where I was and got her out of the water.

When she was out of the lake, I saw that she was almost completely naked and her lips were blue.

"Where are your clothes and why are you blue?" I asked her as I untied the rope around her ankles and tried not to look at her. "There in my pack and it's fucking freezing. That's why I have almost nothing on." She got out as her teeth chattered. I looked at her for a second then threw my jacket at her.

"There's a shit load of jackets at the cornucopia. And what the hell was that dumbass doing to you?" I asked her. I glanced at the others that were fighting off the little mutations and not even paying attention to us.

"He was going to do that till I died or let him rape me." She said as she zipped up the jacket all the way to her chin and stuffed her hand in the pockets.

"Why'd you let him?" I angrily asked. She glared at me, "I didn't want to! He had a spear pointed at my head!"

"Well, I'm glad I practically killed him." I said as she looked down again. "I have to go back to them. Cut me so it looks like you got away. Also, clove wants to be in the alliance and kill off district one."

She looked up me then took the sword that I handed to her. "By all means, if you two can find me then Clove is an ally." She said. Before I could respond, she took the sword and slashed my thigh, and bicep. She had cut me, but not deep enough to kill me.

She threw the sword at my feet then ran out in to the darkness. I grimaced when I started walking back to the others. When I got there, the mutations had only taken a bite out of Glimmer and there was four left. I stabbed three of the remaining ones while Clove managed to kill the last one.

"Where is she?" Glimmer yelled. I glowered at her, "She got away," she let out a cry in frustration then turned to me.

"Why did you let her go? Ugh, I could have killed her!" she yelled. I approached her and grabbed her neck while pinning her to a tree.

"You think I wanted to let her go, you stupid bitch? She managed to almost kill me." I growled. The truth was, I didn't want to let her go. I would have much rather stayed with her than be stuck with shithead. As I pushed her further in to the tree, she clawed at my hand until her face turned purple and I dropped her on the ground. She gasped for breath as Clove said, "Let's head back to the cornucopia."

We all agreed and started to walk.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The days went by too slow. We were already on the third day when we got some action. The district three bot walked slowly up to us with his hands raised.

"What do you want?" I growled at him. "I can help protect the supplies. I know how to make them work again and make them blow up when somebody steps on them. All I want in return is protection." He managed to get out.

The other careers nodded and Clove shot at him, "Get working." His eyes widened then he went to one of the pedestals and dug up a hole with a little knife he had.

I rolled my eyes at him then threw one of the shovels near his feet. "You're from three, aren't you supposed to be smart?"

He opened his mouth to say something back to me but, knowing what I could do, he decided not to. I smirked then walked away.

Clove walked up to me while district one was practicing with their weapons. "Marvel wants to kill Shit head off and join the alliance."

"She won't go for it. Glimmer is barely a career, she'd be taking her place in our alliance." I said while gazing out to the forest line. Clove groaned, "Then let me go kill her right now. She won't form an alliance with the careers, so, why in the world would she even join one with us." She said. I shrugged at her and glanced at district one.

"More specifically, why would she join one with you?" she started with a raised eyebrow as she looked at me. "Is that your plan? To kill us all off and go run to your little girlfriend? Huh?" she growled as her hand went towards her jacket that held multiple knives.

"If that was the plan, you'd all be dead. Last time I checked, you're not a ghost." I spat. She rolled her eyes at me then walked over to the district one careers.

It had been three days since I gave her some supplies. Which meant, that it was time for me to give her some more.

"I'll be back in a couple of hours," I called to them as I stuffed some stuff in a backpack. They all glanced at me suspiciously then went back to whatever they were doing.

I walked for a half an hour then found where we were supposed to meet. But, I was early. So, I walked towards the lake that we had found her by.

I walked toward the water fall, curious to see what was there. I ducked behind the waterfall, and saw something surprising.

"Hadley?" I asked. She turned to face me and her eyes widened. "How did you find me?" She grabbed her trident, "If you even try to kill me, you'll be dead in a second."

I raised my eyebrows at her and her predatory pose. "Calm down, I just wanted to look behind the waterfall."

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at me then let me take a step forward. Before I could even get too far to where she was standing, I was tackled by an animal.

The animal that was a large dog, and not a mutation, snarled at me and gnashed its teeth. I struggled to get off of me, but Hadley hollered, "Vix, off!"

The dog got off of me and trotted to Hadley's side. He stood next to her growling at me while she gripped her trident.

"What is that?" I yelled. "He was Quinn's method of defense, but when he limped away, the dog stayed by me. He's pretty goddamn handy too." She said.

She patted his head then said, "And he's not even a mutation. He's an actual dog. I don't know how Quinn managed to get him."

I glanced at the dog then took off the backpack and got out the supplies I needed to give her. She took it and muttered a thank you before putting it somewhere in the cave.

She came back to the front of the cave and said, "Are the other careers still as bloodthirsty as bats?"

"Glimmer is," I said while I looked around the cave. "And the big leader of the careers isn't? You could just kill me now and be off."

"Where's the fun in that?" I asked her in a teasing way. She shrugged then set her trident against a wall while watching me cautiously.

"I think it'd be best to take out shithead as soon as possible." She said as she leaned against one of the walls.

"Would you like to do the honors?" I asked her. "Yeah, actually, can you lure her out over here?" she replied, surprising me.

"Seriously?" she nodded at me slowly. "What happened to the Hadley that didn't like killing?" I murmured.

"Well, I'd like to go home. So," she said while picking up her trident again. "Okay, well I'll go back and get her and everyone else. Clove is going to be in the alliance."

She nodded, "You found, and that was the deal." I smirked remembering the deal we had made before I walked out of the cave and started to run back to the career camp.

"You guys! You guys! I found her sleeping." I shouted when I got to the camp. Like the blood thirsty demons they were, they all yelled in excitement and followed me as I ran back to where Hadley was.

We got to the lake when Hadley jumped out of a tree and made all of us turn around startled. She tackled glimmer and went to stab her in the forehead with one of her knives. But, Marvel had to ruin it.

He hefted his spear up and launched it at Hadley. I watched with startled eyes as Hadley rolled off of glimmer and the spear impaled glimmer right in the chest. She shakily tore the spear out and grabbed one of her arrows.

She blindly stabbed the ground next to her in hopes of getting a hit at Hadley. But Hadley was quick.

She had already gotten up and threw a knife right in to Glimmer's throat. We all heard the cannon boom.

Marvel let out a roar. "Why isn't anybody trying to kill the bitch?!" he yelled. He lunged at Hadley who dodged it. He continued to do this till she was behind and the tip of my sword was at his throat yet again.

"She's in an alliance with me and Clove. You even try to kill her and you're out of the alliance and dead." I growled at him. Surprisingly, Hadley didn't object to him being in the alliance.

Marvel nodded after he had calmed down and glanced at Hadley who stood next to me. She met his gaze and gave him a small nod.

"Now what? I'm not going to the cornucopia, so you can either leave me, or make somebody stay here." Hadley said with her eyes crossed over her chest.

"What do you have against being a career?" Clove growled at her. Clove seemed to be upset with her, so she walked up to her and pushed her. Hadley didn't even move before saying, "I have everything against _being_ one. Not them in general." She said fiercely.

Clove gave her a look then nodded begrudgingly. Finally speaking up, I said, "I'll stay with Hadley, you two go to the cornucopia and guard supplies. We'll take out more tributes separated."

After finally agreeing, Marvel and Clove went to the cornucopia while Hadley led me back to the cave.

"I don't know what you're planning with them, but if you're going to kill me, just do it now." She said sighing. I looked at her strangely. "Where is the fun in that?" I sarcastically spoke. She nodded, reluctantly.

"You swear you won't kill me till the alliance has to break?" She asked. As if I could kill her. I rolled my eyes at her.

"I swear I won't kill you until the alliance breaks." I said to her. She nodded at me slowly then said, "Okay, then. C'mon, I have something to show you."

She started walking towards the back of the cave while I walked blindly next to her. "It's dark and I can't see shit. How do you know there aren't mutts? And how do I know you won't kill me?"

"You swore to me so I swear that I won't kill you till the alliance has to break. I know, it's dark but I can see. And Vix is guarding the other entrance." She told me.

"How do I know where to go then?" I asked her. I heard her sigh before I felt a hand in mine. Like an instinct, my hand tightened around her hand. But it was strange; I was following the girl that would probably kill me without any objects and without knowing where I was going.

"We're here," she said as we entered a room that had a torch in it. I looked inside the room and saw that Hadley had a smaller version of a cornucopia.

"Was this all here?" I asked in disbelief. "No, it was in the entrance of the cave, I moved it so it'd be safer." She told me.

I stood there pleasantly surprised while she loudly but quietly said, "Vix!" The dog that had earlier tried to eat me ran up to her side as she went and grabbed two sleeping bags and blankets.

"You want to take first watch, Mr. Big bad career?" she said throwing a sleeping bag at me and laying hers out.

"Sure thing, little shark." I said. She smiled a small smile then got in to the sleeping bag and threw another blanket on top of herself. Her killer dog trotted over to her side and curled up next to her.

About a half an hour later, she had fallen asleep. Even though she had her trident clutched in her hand and the other on top of the dog, I couldn't help but think that she looked beautiful and oh so mysterious.

**XXXXXXX**

**So, in case anybody was wondering, the dog, is a Doberman pinscher. Pretty sure I spelled pinscher wrong but oh well.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven: Hadley's POV

"Wake up. Get up. It's your turn to be on watch." I heard as somebody shook my shoulder.

I jolted awake and sprung in to action. I threw myself on top of the person and pinned them down while I held one of my knives at their throat.

"Oh, it's just you, Cato." I said as I took the knife away from his throat. "Yeah, it's just me, and we're allies at the moment, so refrain from having me at knife point."

I rolled my eyes at him then rolled off of him. "Did anything happen?" I asked him as I grabbed more of my weapons.

"Girl from three died, that's all." He grit out. He seemed to be in a pissy mood. "Why are you acting like someone shit on your steak?" I asked him.

The corner of his lip turned up in the slightest way, but then it fell as he tried to hide it. "I let the kid from three into the alliance. I forgot about what you said though." He managed to say as I got out of the sleeping bag. He pulled it away from me and jammed his long legs in to it.

"What other food do we have?" he asked once he was all the way in the sleeping bag. "Some dried stuff that's non-perishable, but it'd be better if it was saved for when we really need it. And how the fuck did you forget about the killer kid from three?"

"I don't know! He said he could dig up the mines and activate them again. It seemed like a good deal and I just didn't remember what you said!" he said loudly.

"Alright, Alright. He's gonna go blow the stuff up. That, although, is still a majorly stupid thing on your part. But we have to make a decision. Or you do, really, I don't really think my opinion matters too much. Are you going to try and warn the others?" I question.

He shrugs and looks conflicted. "I- well, I couldn't care less about Marvel. It would get him out of the way right away. But Clove, she's my district partner. We grew up together, granted we didn't talk too much, but we still grew up together." He says as he grabs another one of the blankets.

I grin and push away a feeling that I don't like. "Ooh, did the capitol people have it all wrong? Did you really like Clove and not me?" I say teasing him.

He glares at me then shakes his head. "No, they were wrong about the both of you." I roll my eyes at his statement but I still can't help but feel a pang of some kind of emotion, that is also depressing and disliked.

If he hadn't of liked me at all, why was he always trying to talk to me before the games? Why would he always kiss me back or initiate a kiss? If he was trying to get in my pants, he would have done it before the games. He would also become another Quinn if those were his motives. He would have a black eye and bloody nose every other day.

But, we are in the games. So, it would make sense to just kill him. And as much as that thought seemed like a good one, I still could not make myself do it.

"Hey, I'm tired as fuck. And you probably are still too. Can your dog keep watch?" he asked as he laughed.

I shrugged, "Probably. Vix, keep watch. Okay, boy?" the dog trotted over to my side and sat beside me and stared out towards the entrance of the cave.

"I'm assuming he can." I said tiredly. Cato nodded and stared at me. "Jeez, it's cold in here. I'm going to go and grab another sleeping bag." I said as I started to get up.

He stopped me though, "Just come in this one, stupid. It's huge anyways, and with two people it'll keep even more heat in it."

I stared at him. He looked to be a hundred percent serious though. "No, you'll probably 'accidently' stab me in my sleep." I said to him.

"Alright, well, you're stupid and I'm not the one that cuts peoples legs and whatever else." He called as I walked to get a sleeping bag. I stopped though, "Quit calling me stupid."

"Then, quit acting like it." He said in a tough tone. I huffed out some breath and turned around. Marching over to where he stood, I said, "Move the hell over."

He smirked then moved to one side of the sleeping bag. I had to crouch to unzip the sleeping bag then slide my legs that were too long inside of it. When I was inside of the huge sleeping bag, I zipped it up and said to Cato, "If I wake up and your junk is up against me I might just castrate you."

I heard Cato nervously chuckle and scoot as far as he could to the other side of the sleeping bag. I yawned, "Good decision."

Minutes after we were both almost asleep, Cato leaned over and whispered as quiet as quiet as he could, "I'm partial towards the Hadley from district four. Not clove or the fake Capitol pleasing Hadley."

XXXX

I woke up to a heavy feeling on my side. "What the hell?" I muttered. Looking over at my side, I saw that there was a heavily muscled arm encircled around me. And to top it all off, it was Cato's arm.

"Go back to sleep, little shark." He muttered as he tightened his arm around me. I sat there utterly shocked that this was even happening. "I-what? Cato, no. Get up." I said.

"You're commanding in the morning, little shark." He started, "and would you calm down? It's not even light out yet. Nobody is going to find us."

"It's not that! Why were you, like, holding me?" I asked. He opened his bright blue eyes that were directly in front of my brownish ones and let go of me.

"Is that what you've been bitching about?" he asked with a little bit of anger in his voice. I merely shrugged and tried to shrink as much as I could.

He noticed and rolled his eyes. Then, he wrapped a massive arm around me then another and muttered something about how I am a royal pain in the ass sometimes. If only he knew just how bad I could get.

I was woken up by a clap of thunder. I jumped when I heard it, and felt Cato stir next to me.

"I was trying to fucking sleep." He muttered. He had managed to keep his arms around me the whole time. He had also managed to keep me warm even though it seemed as though the temperature had dropped a lot.

I hummed in agreement. He glanced over at me and stared for a second. I opened my eyes all the way to see his eyebrows draw together.

"They made it thunder and dropped the temperature to wake us up." Cato muttered so quietly that I almost didn't hear him say it. I looked at him as my eyes widened.

This is exactly what they wanted to happen. They wanted us to get together, the capitol people are probably eating this up right now.

I was becoming exactly what I didn't want to be. A little pawn in their game. I wanted to be Hadley from district four when I walked in and out of this arena. And at this rate, I wasn't going to be that girl.

I had done things that the capitol must have loved. I killed the girl, marvel really did, that was trying to start someone with Cato. But, really, I was just trying to get a potential threat out of the way. I was trying to survive. I wasn't trying to start to like or act like I like a career.

But if I was going to survive, I would have too. As soon as I separated myself from Cato, they wouldn't make it this easy. They would make it hard as hell. They would make me fight. Eventually, they would make me fight Cato. Which I most definitely didn't want to do.

So, this is what I would have to do. I'd have to seem like I was falling for him.

I nodded at him and started to sit up, in which he did too. "If it stops raining, I need to go swim. I haven't been out of water this long."

Cato laughed loudly and but stopped after he realized something apparently. I looked at him strangely. "Care to explain?"

He shook his head, "No, not really. You'll see later I guess." I raised my eyebrows at him but nodded.

I unzipped the sleeping bag and tried to get out. Only to be grabbed by the hips and pulled in to Cato's chest. "I'm hungry," I started. He grunted and muttered something about getting me some food from our supplies.

"No, Cato. We can't eat that yet. That needs to be saved for when it really needs to be used. I'll go hunt down a squirrel, or catch a few fish." I suggested. He grunted yet again but let me worm my way out of the sleeping bag.

While grabbing a trident and some knives, I heard the sleeping bag rustle then saw Cato walk over to where his sword was. "Coming with?" I asked him.

He merely grunted, yet again, and waved his sword around while I found my knives and small bow and some arrows. "Is that all you do now? Grunt?"

He grinned, and then grunted. I rolled my eyes and pushed his shoulder. This caused him to smirk, then say, "Oh, come on now, little shark. Push those damn fish, not me."

I glared at him then called Vix over to my side and headed over to the entrance of the cave.

Walking out of the cave, I saw that the rain had stopped and that it was surprisingly warm out. Unlike the cave, I didn't need my jacket while being out here. I shrugged it off, wrapping it around my waist and put all of the knives that were in it in my belt, and then walked cautiously out from behind the waterfall.

"So, since it quit raining and it's abnormally sunny, I'll catch the fish with my hands." I told Cato. After I said that, I started to take off my jacket and shirt, with the intention of leaving my undershirt on.

But Cato didn't know that.

He stood there stunned as I took my clothes off. "What the hell are you doing? The whole country is going to see you without clothes on." he said as he walked up to me and attempted to cover me up.

"Oh calm down," I said with a smirk, "I'm leaving the undershirt on." I finished. "Okay. But what are you doing?" he said with a little bit of confusion.

In four, it was normal for somebody to be near water and randomly start stripping. Granted, you had to keep something on, which I was.

I was also going in the water to fish. I was going hand fishing. "I'm going in the water to catch fish with my hands so I don't have to make a hook." I told him.

He glanced at the water than nodded. I took off my pants, but kept on the shorts and dove into the water.

I've always loved water whether it was the pool at the training center back home or just water in the ocean. I swam around for a minute then surfaced when I needed some air.

I swam over to the edge over of the lake next to Cato. "So, are you going to come in?" I asked as I floated in the water.

"No." he said as he looked down at me. I furrowed my eyebrows, "Why not? Is the big bad career scared of water?"

He looked down at me again and said, "No and because." I looked up at him for a minute before realizing something.

"Cato, can you swim?" I asked as I pulled myself up on to the ground. He scratched his neck and looked around, "I can float,"

"Cato, that's not the same. Get in the water and let me teach you." I said as I grabbed his hand and attempted to pull him in the water.

He quickly let go of my hand and took a few steps back. "No, the academy said that you just have to kick and you'll move."

"Well, no offense whatsoever to _your _academy and district, but they're wrong. It is _very _important." I told him as I stood up.

"You're only thinking that because you're from four." He said in a hard tone. I scoffed at him and crossed my arms, "What if the arena had been an ocean this year? Or you were left alone on an island? Hm?"

"The game makers wouldn't have done that, it would show favoritism towards your district." He said taking a threatening step towards me. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't standing down from this argument.

"Why do you care so much anyways?" he said angrily. I was about to respond, but from the corner of my eye, I could see somebody moving from behind the tree line. I watched as they came out of the tree line and let a knife come flying towards us.

Thinking quickly, I grabbed Cato by the face and kissed him harder than he had ever kissed me. He was shocked that I did that so I took the opportunity and pulled him into the water with me, the knife barely missing his shoulder.

When we both underwater, I grabbed the knife in his belt and surfaced as fast as I could. When I surfaced I was lifted out of the water, I saw that the boy from nine was my captor. He threw me on the ground and blindly started punching me. I heard Vix race over to my side and start biting at the boy.

It hurt. _A lot_.

I heard Cato surface from the water and splash around for a minute then lift himself out of the water. I felt the boy being pulled off of me, and heard Cato yell at him, "Don't you ever fucking touch her!"

Then Cato did what the boy had done to me. Surprisingly though, the boy pulled out another knife and managed to cut Cato's bicep.

That set me off, even though I could barely stand. I crawled over the boy was starting to fight back and grabbed the knife out of this hand.

I took it and stabbed him in the shoulder, I would have tried to end it completely, but I could barely move.

The boy cried out as Cato ripped the knife out of shoulder and said, "You will not _ever_ touch her, nobody will."

The boy stared up at Cato with fear in his eyes, but he kept going. Cato brought the knife up and then brought the knife down in to the boy's forehead.

The boy quit moving completely, and the cannon boomed. Cato got up off of the boy and picked me up.

Most people would cower away from him, but surprisingly, I didn't. The fact that he had gotten that worked up when the boy from nine tried to do that surprised me.

Once he had gotten me in his arms, he grabbed our stuff and carried me back to the cave with Vix trotting behind us. "Hadley, no. Stay awake." He commanded me.

"I'm just tired and my face hurts really bad." I whined. He walked in to the cave and set me down on the sleeping bag. I whined when my head hit the stone on the ground. Cato grimaced and told Vix to stay by me.

The dog sat down next to me as Cato went to grab something from the supplies. I laid there for a couple minutes petting Vix as I tried to stay awake.

Cato came back, his arms full of sleeping bags and what looked like clothes. He kneeled down next to me and lifted me up, and placed the sleeping bags on top of one another.

He then put me back down on the now soft ground. "Hadley, you're soaking wet, I need to change you." He said as he looked me in the eyes.

I managed to shake my head, "It's okay, I got it." Cato rolled his eyes at me, "It's alright, little shark. I'll do it quick and I won't stare."

I nervously stared up at him as he grabbed the clothes that were mine. He turned to me and grabbed for the hem of my shirt. But, just like that, everything in me was alive. I was so nervous that every nerve in my body was suddenly a flaming fire that would not go out.

I nervously clenched my jaw when he had gotten the shirt off of me completely. He was a liar, he said he wouldn't stare. He sat there taking in my almost nakedness on the top half of my body. Thank god for bras. Opal had been smart and gotten me a bra and a pair of underwear that were also a swimsuit, but I had still insisted on having the under shirt and shorts on.

He noticed that I noticed he lied and grabbed my shirt and got it over my head. He then reached for the waistband of the shorts and kept his eyes trained on my face. He slowly slid them down my legs. He stared at my legs after the shorts had come off. _Liar_.

He snapped out of it and put the other pants on me. He then got up and went to grab his clothes.

I suddenly was filled with a new sense of insecurity.

I looked over at Cato who currently didn't have a shirt on. And on display, was his very toned and defined stomach and chest. _Was that a six pack?!_

He caught me staring at him and smirked. I fortunately didn't blush and waited for him talk.

He came near seconds later with a canteen filled with water and some dried jerky. "You need to eat, you can't hunt right now. And you need to get better." He said to me as he sat down right beside where I was laying.

"Cato, I-" I started, "_No_. You need to rest, Hadley. When you're better you can teach me to swim and we can go hunt." He finished. I huffed and glared up at him. He smiled down at me and carefully put my head in his lap.

"I'm not ever going to let you get hurt again, little shark." He whispered when he thought I was asleep. "You're going to go home, Hadley."

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "So are you." "You know that's not going to happen," he said.

"Shh, just shut up and live in this moment. Right now, not when we go home." I commanded him.

He chuckled and laid next to me. He leaned over and pecked me on the lips. I smiled and wrapped an arm around him.

He was wrong. I was going to find a way to get out strange duo home together. No matter what.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Words don't describe how shitty I feel for not updating for over a month. Hopefully, this chapter makes up for a little bit of it. I'm also going to try and update as much as I can.**


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